This project brought together artists and poets with the specific brief of creating a response to existing guide stoops upon the moors. "The real inspiration" said Charles Monkhouse who devised and led the project, "are the Guide Stoops, which though functionless today, tell of the landscape at the time of their making. Although the Companion Stones point to the future, they are also about present. They will tell people of the future of how we feel today."

Companion Stones is organised by Arts in the Peak in collaboration with the Peak District National Park Authority and funded by the Arts Council, Gulbenkian Foundation, the Duke of Devonshire's Charitable Trust, the National Trust, local quarries and by private donations.